Scrape ECHEQUE out of PAYPAL

I detest echeques! There, I’ve said it. They’re the worst part of PayPal and it’s time they were scrapped, retired, banned and resigned to whatever dark and dusty corner they sent BillPoint to. I sincerely hope that we look back on 2008 as the year PayPal finally wised up to the fact that echeques are more hassle than they’re worth.

It’s not just the fact it takes 7-9 working days for them to clear that makes me hate them so much. It’s the fact that ever since I’ve started using PayPal they’ve consistently and abjectly failed to process them correctly.

I’m still getting emails stating a 4 working day clearance time - that’s how long it takes in the US, not the UK. I’m fed up with explaining to buyers that it’ll be around ten days before we find out if their payment cleared or not.

Now it’s gotten even worse though! My latest communication with a buyer has revealed PayPal aren’t even bothering to inform them they’ve paid with an echeque. In a recent email sent to a buyer:The email confirms the buyer has paid, they’re expecting to receive the goods. Nowhere on the email does it indicate to the buyer that they haven’t made an instant payment. There is no mention of clearance time. There is no mention of goods not being shipped until payment clears. No 7-9 working days.

As a seller it’s now left to me to explain that they’ve paid via an echeque and that PayPal tell sellers “If you are sending an item, please do not ship your item until the funds have cleared into your PayPal account”

It simply isn’t good enough. PayPal need to ensure that their communications inform buyers that their payment is pending and that it’ll take anything up to a couple of weeks to clear. Telling a buyer that they’ve paid when they’ve simply initiated an echeque is just not good enough.